Teaching is an art because each teacher has his or her own strength and own way to be effective.

Q. And, how can you gauge the effectiveness of the teacher?

A. We need to do simple and practical assessments of how students learn and by what processes they learn effectively. For instance, when Sesame Street started, the plan was to have people as instructors because it was believed that a focus on people would be more effective in creating learning amongst students. Since the people at Sesame Street were open to testing that question, they compared the engagement levels by replacing human beings with muppets. Contrary to their expectations, they found that a muppet was of much higher interest to students than people. Hence, we see all the famous muppets that are part of Sesame Street, like Big Bird and Elmo.

Q. Do you feel that curriculum today is an attraction to the youth or is there a change required to draw them towards making career in different fields?

A. Curriculum definitely needs to be changed. We need to modify it so that it has diversity built into it, which will enable people to learn in the ways that are most effective. With dynamic curricula, a teacher becomes an important practitioner who is helping to figure out the ways learning, goals and interests vary amongst students.

Q. What reforms in academia do you see as the need of the hour?

A. Most important – we need to move away from teaching everyone in one way and focus on how students learn effectively in different ways. I have worked with a number of schools and the most effective institutions have been the ones that deal with student differences. These are the schools that focus on each student and his or her most effective learning methods.

Q. Today best teaching and learning resources are available in English. Does language create a barrier between the seeker (not so proficient in English) and focus of knowledge on English? If yes, how can the teacher help?

A. There is research today that demonstrates that multilingual people are more flexible in their thinking skills. Evidence shows that they are more flexible and adaptable in their learning strategies. If teachers can honour different languages and build on the natural flexible thinking ability that comes from being multilingual, educationists can bridge this gap and take advantage of the cognitive flexibility that comes with being multilingual. Click here to read full interview...

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